Sunday, September 6, 2015

BREAKING NEWS: Farce Friday Star Wars Haul

Friday was dubbed "Force Friday" in honor of the release of all the new Star Wars toys for The Force Awakens. More later on why it was called Farce Friday.

Most stores opened at midnight. I had the opportunity to go, coming home late from a preseason NFL game but I ended up just heading home. There would be plenty left on the shelves tomorrow, right?

Anyway, I arrived at Target (which didn't do the Midnight Madness event the night before) right around opening time. About five us went straight for the toy section. An entire side of an aisle was dedicated to the Force Awakens.

I didn't take a cart. I should have. I wasn't planning on getting everything, but a cart would have come in handy for all the 3-3/4" figures. Everyone was polite. There was no hoarding like I heard on other forums.

I grabbed the new X-Wing and Snow Speeder.

I grabbed three 6" Black Series - Rey, Stormtrooper, and Kylo Ren. These are very cool.

Finally, I grabbed three carded figures - Rey, Poe, and Resistance Trooper. I should have grabbed a few more but I couldn't carry anymore.

I moved on to Walmart. I saw a kiosk stand in front, mostly Legos and Hot Wheels vehicles. The small section for figures was picked clean. I figured the larger section was in the toy section. There was nothing there. Odd. I still grabbed Rey's speeder. By the way, the packaging artwork is incredible.

Then I went to another Target. It was picked clean of all figures. I did grab Finn's landspeeder and TIE Fighter. I had not noticed this landspeeder in the forums before, but the exclusive Finn figure looked cool as well as the vehicle itself.

I considered waiting an hour to go into Toys R Us, but figured I best get to work. I'd hit it on the way home.

Being Labor Day weekend, I released my team early and headed home. I stopped at Toys R Us. This is what the figure section looked like:

It still looked like this Sunday morning.

So, why was it a Farce. There was not enough product. Even if you lined up at midnight according to most reports, the first 5-8 people emptied it with no restock.

For families who weren't crazy enough to stand in line at midnight or opening on Friday, there is nothing left. Most collectors were polite but reports of rude collectors emptying everything into their carts regardless of posted limits, left many collectors and fans empty handed. Etailers were not allowed to preorder either. The big box toys monopolized the event and now they left collectors hanging. Pathetic.

Overall, I am happy with the new figures. The vehicles were better than expected. The packaging art is fantastic. I now ordered everything at Big Bad Toy Store. Everything was listed by Friday morning.

Also ordered some more Black Series at Amazon. So I don't have them on Friday. They'll be here soon enough. Hasbro has earned its share of wrath for screwing this up. The consensus among collectors are, they just don't care.

Oh well - it's still fun to collect and to get ready for the new movie.